


Good Out Here

by danny1898



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Drama, F/M, Falling In Love, Fights, Flashbacks, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Minor Injuries, Serious Injuries, Slow Burn, Team as Family, Violence, nothing too graphic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-23 01:48:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23070403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danny1898/pseuds/danny1898
Summary: Jyn didn’t consider herself to be a lucky person; not before and certainly not now in the middle of the apocalypse..It’s been months since the zombie apocalypse started, and everyone is fighting to survive in this new world.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso
Comments: 20
Kudos: 38





	1. Good Out Here

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. So this is the zombie apocalypse AU no one asked for but is still here anyways. Hope you like it.  
> Small warning: there might be small grammatical or spelling mistakes.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jyn spends every day of the apocalypse trying to survive on her own, but sometimes you can’t do anything about accidentally crossing paths with strangers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. So this is the zombie apocalypse AU no one asked for but is still here anyways. Hope you like it.  
> Small warning: there might be small grammatical or spelling mistakes.
> 
> Update: I had to rewrite some parts of this, but the main storyline is still the same. Hope you like the update better. I'll be redoing the next chapter shortly.

Jyn didn’t consider herself to be a lucky person; not before and certainly not now in the middle of the apocalypse. 

Somehow, she was running out of supplies  _ -again- _ , and being completely honest she could also really use a change of clothes; hers smelled of days of intense sweating mixed with the awful smell of dried blood. This far, one couldn’t help but wonder: How bad did you have to smell for it to bother yourself?

At least, she still had water -lucky her-, but seeing how the rainy season was over she made a mental note to not let herself get too confident about it.

But first things first. She needed to find food soon. 

Her last decent meal had been two days ago, as the persistent growling of her stomach liked to reminded her. At this point, she didn’t even give a shit if her dinner came in the shape of a can of soup or a pretty little deer that just happened to cross her path. If she could, she would pick both.

Walking down the highway she had been following for the past days, she started noticing what seemed to be the start of another small town. 

After her last failed scavenging attempts at convenience stores and restaurants she had decided those places were a waste of time; by now, all of them were most likely emptied by other survivors. With each month that passed, food had become harder to come by; getting creative about where to look was a new necessity.

The first street appearing next to the highway led her to what used to be an elementary school, it was deeper into the woods, but just a few minutes walk away from the entry of the town.

The school didn’t look like much, but by the looks of it, it was clear people used to live in there; the windows in the first floor had all been covered with pieces of wood, blocking any light from coming through; some dust covered trucks were still parked near the front entrance, maybe waiting an emergency evacuation if the situation demanded it; and the two fresh corpses being eaten by the other  _ not so dead ones _ indicated it hadn’t been so long ago since the place had fallen.

Hopefully, in the middle of all the haste, the poor idiots had left some food inside. An abandoned survivor camp was the jackpot Jyn needed. 

Knowing better than to ignore her survival skills  _ -Saw had trained her better than that-  _ she decided to wait behind some bushes, they were the perfect cover while she took a quick rest scanning her surroundings and drinking some of the water she carried in her backpack. She couldn’t risk getting face to face with another survivor; in this new world it was easy to learn that although the dead were not to be ignored, the main threat kept being other humans. 

For around 10 minutes straight there was no other movement aside from the six not so dead people engrossed in their dinner. If she was quick and quiet enough they wouldn’t notice her presence; giving her enough time to finish them. 

Satisfied with the surveillance, Jyn moved forward walking through the deserted school yard. Sure enough, none of the dead noticed her approach.

She pulled her knife free from the sheath that kept it secured to her belt and then prepared to attack. 

First, she went for the two that were standing. She came behind the first ugly thing pulling her knife deep into the side of its head, drawing it out fast enough to drive it again into the waiting skull of the second one.

The sound of the two lifeless bodies hitting the floor alerted the remaining four of her presence. 

The one who had been eating from the chest of the first corpse crawled after her, not caring about getting up, and Jyn took the chance to quickly shove the knife in its skull. One thing she had learned the hard way was the need to go for their head first, otherwise they wouldn’t stop.

When the next two came after her at the same time, she improvised a plan; she kicked the one that came from her left sending it stumbling backwards giving her the extra time she needed time to handle the other one properly; this one was taller than the rest, but her own smaller height helped her dig the knife from below its skull with zero resistance entering through the neck; and lastly she turned around ready to go after the one she kicked back. It was still lying on the floor; and she didn’t give it a chance to stand up stepping with her full weight on its head sending all its brains splashing around.

Finally, Jyn made a run for the last one; throwing her whole body at it, using the momentum to delve her knife deep into its head. Both fell down, with the corpse taking the full damage. 

Immediately she rolled off the corpse and took a look around, happy to notice the noise hadn’t caught the attention of any more undead people.

From her sitting spot she could now completely see the two fresh corpses that now lay abandoned and half eaten: a woman and a little boy, both with their guts spilled all over the ground with a fresh poodle of blood around them. The bullet holes in their forehead told her she might not be as alone as she had previously thought.

If they weren’t killed that long ago, she reasoned that if it had happened in the last 30 minutes she would have heard the gunshots all the way to the highway. Maybe, whoever had killed them was already long gone. However, she couldn’t let her guard down so easily. 

Not backing down from her search for food, Jyn stepped inside the school. 

At first impression, the place looked as if the apocalypse had never reached it: the classrooms were frozen in time with their chairs and desks waiting for kids who will never come back, the hallways were perfectly clean, still decorated with paintings or drawings the kids must have made, and most importantly there were zero dead people walking around the place. The only thing out of place where all the windows covered so no light came through, giving the place an extra eerie atmosphere. 

For all of its perfectness, there hadn’t been anything worth her time this far. Her last shot was to find the main camp, and the last place left to check was the gym. 

When she found it, she got a small idea why the camp hadn’t lasted; as she had predicted, the main settlement had been there, located at the far end of the school with only one hallway as a way in or out; and without having to get inside, she knew the place was a total loss.

From just the sound, she could tell there were at least a dozen dead people inside; without a doubt, to many for her to take down all by herself. The door was closed, but not locked, easy for the dead to come walking out of there anytime they realized it didn’t hold. She wasn’t going to stay around to find out when it happened. 

Defeated and angered by the loss of her time Jyn turned around ready to leave the place, but stopped right on her tracks when she heard noise coming from where she had arrived.

It was a voice. 

A voice that was definitely getting closer, and she had no place where to go or hide.

As the voice got louder she wasn’t the only one that noticed it. From the other side of the gym’s double doors, the noise of steps and grunts became louder too. She had to do something.

When the figure of a man appeared at the other side of the hallway she had her gun ready and pointed at him. For his part he didn’t look surprised at finding her there, but had his own gun quickly aimed her way anyway. On his belt, the walkie-talkie that hung there kept on sounding. 

“I’m telling you, by the looks of this, I’m ninety percent sure there’s no one left alive” the voice of someone said through it.

“Turn it off” she growled, nodding with her gun at the walkie-talkie. To her right, the dead had started becoming more agitated. 

At first look, she was totally sure she could take him down if it came down to it; he didn’t look like much. Sure, he was taller than her, but she had taken down people way more taller and way more heavier than him. There were no more visible weapons from her spot, but didn’t mean he couldn’t be hiding some underneath his blue coat. 

“Drop your weapon first” the man said, not giving the walkie-talkie even a look.

When everything went to hell, many things happened fast and almost at the same time.

With the walkie-talkie still making sounds, and the man and her still pointing their guns at each other trying to order the other to drop theirs first, the walkers had finally been intrigued by the noise and had finally accumulated at the other side of the doors, effectively pushing them open for the whole hoard to pass. 

From the corner of her eye Jyn saw them come out one by one, and without a second thought decided to run towards the end of the hallway, nevermind the new presence who was still pointing his gun, but had turned lal his attention to the hoard flooding the hallway. Jyn ran past him, and almost immediately started hearing his footsteps trail closely behind her. 

They both ran away from there, Jyn quickly heading for the main entrance of the school. 

One good thing about walkers, was that they weren’t really fast, more like, not fast at all, so outrunning them was easy. 

Jyn could almost see the outside of the school, feeling the fresh air pushing her hair back, and just when she thought they had made it, she found there was a whole new herd waiting for them right outside, completely blocking their escape; worse of all, their sudden arrival had caught the full attention of all dead people who instantly started going after them. 

Both her and the man had stopped right on their tracks at seeing what waited for them outside, and with the upcoming herd closing in, they had to turn around to find another way out. 

Looking around the place, Jyn remembered one of the classrooms that wasn’t locked and had furniture they could use to block the door, and went straight for it. Like before, the man didn’t waste any time in following her and soon they were both inside the classroom closing the door just as the first walkers had started to arrive. 

The closest thing Jyn found to start the barricade was what used to be the teacher’s desk, and she went to work on it, calling for her new acquaintance to go and help her set the barricade faster.

They threw all the chairs and tables they could find in the room; hopefully, putting enough space between them and the dead people trying to get in.

Once the last chair was used, they could only wait.

This was definitely not how she thought her day would go.

“Just great” she muttered to herself, checking her gun had stayed during all the work attached to the holster. 

No one said anything for a few minutes while they caught their breath and watched the barricade fearfully. Jyn let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding when it was obvious their plan had worked and there was no way the dead could go through the door. Seeing they were momentarily safe she turned around to give the man a piece of her mind. 

“What kind of idiot are you?” she was completely pissed and he was obviously the reason they were in this situation, if he had just turned off the stupid walki-talkie whe she had told him, they wouldn’t be there. 

“Me? This was not my fault” he replied back, just as outraged as her “I’m not the idiot who thought it would be better to keep on talking with a room full of dead people around the corner.” now she was really going to hit him.

“I told you to turn your damn walkie-talkie off and you didn’t listen” she argued sending a death glare straight at him, daring him to say another stupid thing so she could finally punch him. 

“I’m pretty sure if you had mentioned the room full of dead people I would have done it, but I wasn’t going to risk getting shot lowering my gun first” 

“Oh! I’m sorry I don’t trust strangers right away, haven’t you been paying attention, this is the fucking end of the world!” Seriously, how had he survived this far?

“You know what? It doesn’t really matter.” he said, finally putting an end to their argument and throwing his arms up in surrender “We can’t waste time killing each other right now. We need to find another way out, seeing there is no way we are leaving through that door”

“Fine” she replied through gritted teeth. The quicker they were out of there the quicker she wouldn’t have to spend more time with this idiot. The best shot they had was going through one of the windows, and she wasn’t going to let him be the one to find an exit first. “I’ll star checking the windows, you should go check the supply closet first, maybe there’s something there we can use” 

The man didn’t stop glaring at her but didn’t do anything to contradict her, dropping his backpack where he was before going to inspect the closet. The backpack caught her eye, it was bigger than hers, plus it looked heavy, it had to have some good stuff in there.

Maybe she was getting her supplies after all.

Jyn dropped her backpack next to his, and went to inspect one of the windows. There weren’t a lot in the room: just four of them, all in the same wall, and all covered with wood planks. 

While she worked trying to move any of them, she made sure to keep glancing back every now and then at the idiot. The fact they were working together to get the hell out of there didn’t mean she could trust him at all. She saw him inspect the closet and she saw when he finished and went to the windows closest to him. By now, his gun had been also put back on its holster, and now that she thought about it, he must have finally turned off the walkie-talkie as it hadn’t made a sound in some time. 

Thankfully, he hadn’t caught her glancing at him, but she did notice him when he got the same idea as her. 

“What?” She snapped. 

“Where did you get the gun?” The question was out of even curiosity, as if this passed for a normal chit-chat nowadays. 

“Found it a few towns back” he raised an eyebrow at her answer, and she could tell he wasn’t buying it; honestly, she didn’t care, she wasn’t really trying to sound convincing. Soon enough she will be on her way far away from him for this to matter. 

He didn’t ask any more questions, and returned his attention to the task at hand. 

Jyn moved to the next window giving up on the first one. Whoever had put the wood planks had done a pretty good job because it was impossible to pull them off without any other tool to help.

As she got to it, something caught her eye underneath some cardboards and wood planks that were left on the floor. She didn’t know how they hadn’t seen it while they had emptied the place, but she was thankful she was the one who found it. The hammer was barely visible underneath all that stuff, and it was just what she needed to escape the place. 

“This is hopeless” she exclaimed out loud, leaving the windows and going to where the backpacks were. 

“I know, but there’s no other way out,” the idiot said, still fighting the wood planks.

“You were talking to someone, can you tell them to come and get us out?”

“I already called for help, but seeing the herd that appeared at the entrance they must have left or gotten into some trouble”

“Great” she muttered sarcastically. 

If she wanted to leave this place with all his supplies she needed to get rid of him first. The best idea she had this far was locking him inside the closet; it wasn’t the best one she’s ever had, but one had to learn to work with what was at hand.

As the man kept on working on the windows, Jyn stood a few feet away looking for the perfect opportunity, and as soon as she saw him get distracted she took it. 

She was fast and quiet enough he didn’t realize what was happening until he tensed as Jyn pressed her gun to his back.

“Don’t try anything funny” she warned him as she searched him for his weapon. When she found it, she threw it to where the backpacks were so he wouldn’t have a chance to get it.

“Really?” he asked, and Jyn couldn’t see his face but she could bet he was rolling his eyes.

“What? We are not friends or even a team. Like you weren’t already thinking on how to get rid of me. Too bad I’m faster.” she shrugged, she wasn’t going to apologize for putting herself first “Now, hands behind your back and walk to the closet” 

Easily enough, and against her own expectations, he did as he was told, walking without a pause towards the closet. 

Jyn had to admit, she got overconfident when he first didn’t try to fight her back. So when she found herself looking at the ceiling with weigh on top of her and a knife against her throat, she cursed herself for being such an idiot.

“Drop the gun” he ordered her, the effort at taking her down making his accent stand out more than before. With the blade pressing against her skin she had no other choice but to obey, already planning on how to turn things her way. “Now, we don’t have to fight, we can work together to get out of this, don’t make me hurt you” 

Jyn wanted to laugh at him, the one who should be careful of getting hurt was him. But she also knew he had to get rid of his knife first. 

He had been still staring intensely at her, but he never saw when she swiftly moved her leg bringing it to hit him with her knee square on his stomach making him drop the knife and giving her the opportunity to roll the over so she was on top, better yet, she managed to roll him so he was laying down on his stomach and she had her arms firmly on her grip. 

She retrieved her own knife and pressed it against his bare neck. 

“Play nice and I won’t kill you” she warned him, pressing the knife just a little bit more.

Underneath her, he grunted and tried moving to no avail. She didn’t weigh much, but she had her whole weight on his back effectively pinning him down. 

Thinking quickly, she used one of her own shoelaces to tie up his hands. After that she stood up first, switching her knife for her gun that was lying close.

“Up” she ordered him tugging his arm so he could stand up easier but he didn’t even make an attempt. “Don’t make me ask twice” the next time she tugged him up he went with it, fidgeting a bit with his arms tied behind his back “Now, get inside the closet” 

“You have to be kidding me” he said looking back at her over his shoulder. Jyn kept pointing her gun at him staying a few steps away. 

“Do I look like I’m laughing?” she questioned, she couldn’t let him know where she was going to run.

Muttering something she didn’t quite hear under his breath, the man walked and finally got inside the closet. 

Jyn closed the door, and took one of the chairs from the barricade to lock the door into place. 

“Hope you find a way out!” she said loud enough so he could hear her, mocking his situation with a smile.

Jyn was happy for how things turned out in the end. Finally, something was going her way.

She went to pick both backpacks and returned to the window where she had found the hammer. After a few minutes of working, she had loosed up enough wood planks to smash the window underneath making a good enough space to get thought. 

Outside, the last rays of sun gave enough light for Jyn to notice the place was finally deserted, all the walkers most likely inside the school after chasing after them. 

She remembered the trucks she had first seen when she did the first inspection of the place, if she kept walking it would be more dangerous now that it was getting dark, so taking a look wasn’t going to do any harm. 

Easily enough, she found them and went to work on hopefully starting one of them right away. The doors were opened, but there was no key nearby, meaning she had to steal them the old way. 

Jyn had been working on starting the car for a few minutes when for the second time in the day, she found herself this time looking up at the darkening sky, the fall knocking the breath out of her lungs. 

A tall figure appearing on her line of sight towering over her and looking down. 

“Congratulations, you’re being rescued” she recognized the voice, it was the same voice of whoever was talking with the other man via the walkie-talkie. “Please do not resist” 

And somehow, this day just kept getting better and better.


	2. People Like Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. So here’s the second chapter.  
> Enjoy. ^^

Cassian couldn’t really say the mission was a total loss. Of course, it hadn’t gone as he had planned and the fact the whole survivor camp was a total loss would make them change a few of their previous plans, but the info they  _ might _ be getting out of it was totally worth it; even if it meant waiting inside a closet while Kay dealt with the runaway woman.

He estimated he had to wait inside the small closet for around 20 minutes, unable to do much  _ -not even sit-  _ before he finally heard noise coming from the outside. 

“Cassian?” He had to admit he was happy to hear Kay’s voice.

“I’m in here” 

Kay’s footsteps became closer and within seconds the door opened; the flashlight that was pointed directly at him blinded him for a moment.

“You should be ashamed by your poor performance during this mission, Cassian” there wasn’t anything in Kay’s tone or expression that indicated mocking; if anything, it sounded more like concern. 

“I know Kay. I’ll be more careful next time” he said, there was no point in arguing right now; moreover because Kay was slightly right to scold him: he had screwed up. Today wasn’t really one of his best days “Where is she?”

“I had to restrain her; she presented a high risk of running away.” Okay, nothing he hadn’t expected; he knew she wasn’t going to go willingly with them “She’s also unconscious. After her persistent fighting I decided it would be better for the mission if she was unconscious.” If she wasn’t mad before, she sure had reasons to be now.

“Ok let’s go” he said after Kay had helped him freehis hands, and walked out of the small closet. In the classroom there was no sight of his backpack, and of course she had taken it too, if locking him up wasn’t enough.

To get out, Kay led the way through a broken window that had had all wood removed, so getting out wasn’t a problem.

Outside it was completely dark. Although the flashlight was a useful tool, it was also a liability, someone or  _ something  _ could see it even from far away. They needed to move fast. 

Both started walking with a quick pace; careful to look or listen for anything suspicious. 

They were a few meters away from the car when Kay broke the silence “May I ask the reason for the sudden interest in a complete stranger?” The question wasn’t unexpected, less coming from Kay; it was against all rules to bring a stranger back without investigating him or her first. 

“She has a weapon with the Empire’s crest on it. She said she found it, but we both know they don’t tend to leave their weapons lying around” it was a long shot, but right now they needed as many chances as they could get.

“You think she’s working for them?” 

“Doesn’t seem like it.” It definitely didn’t look like it; the Empire tended to like things done in a certain way, and the woman looked all but someone who followed orders “I think she knows where to find them”

“But you are not sure”

“No”

“And we are taking a total stranger back to the community because you think she  _ might _ have some  _ small useful information _ ?” 

“Yes” 

“Doesn’t seem to be worth it.” They had finally reached the car, and even while Kay took the driver's seat he continued explaining why it was a bad idea “She could escape, or be a spy, or just don’t cooperate at all. Taking her back with us is a risk for everyone”

Cassian walked around the car to the passenger’s seat, pausing to look through the backseat window making sure the woman was still unconscious “I know, that’s why we are making sure she stays blindfolded on our way there” apparently, Kay had read his mind and had blindfolded her already “Plus, once inside she will stay handcuffed and guarded all the time” starting now, from where he could keep an eye on her from the passenger’s seat.

“I calculate there’s a ninety poin three percent chance she won’t cooperate at all and will try to escape,” Kay deadpan stated as he turned on the car. Sometimes, Cassian forgot how unintentionally direct his friend could be.

“Maybe Mothma can convince her” if there was anyone back at Yavin lV who could convince people to change their minds was Mon Mothma.

“There’s also seven point four percent chance she is working with the Empire” 

“And the other three percent left”

“The chance she will actually cooperate”

“At least it’s isn’t zero” if the teasing tone bothered Kay, he didn’t show it.

“I have a bad feeling about this” 

————————————————————————————————————————

_ Flashback  _

_ It was the middle of the night when the message arrived; it had been truly a miracle some had been there to answer in time.  _

_ Apparently, someone had gotten in one of the signals Yavin lV had been using for communicating with other communities/settlements. The man had claimed to be a defector from the Empire; he had escaped from their grasp to warn the communities under its rule about the plans they had to make them all fall in line. _

_ As it happened around four in the morning, just a small group of people arrived in time to listen to all of the conversion, Cassian being one of them.  _

_ The man sounded positively alarmed and desperate, pleading for help and protection in exchange for the information he had about the Empire. As realistic as he sounded, everyone in the room had doubts about the legitimacy of the situation.  _

_ Yavin lV alongside other communities had been planning a counterattack against the Empire for a few months now; they were done with the treatment they had been getting, forced to work for them without solace or payback except for alleged protection from their own people. The sudden appearance of a defector bringing them very much-needed information for their cause was way too convenient. _

_ At the end, the council decided to take the risk with the needed precautions. _

_ Within seconds Cassian had offered himself for the mission, regardless of the risk of it being a trap. Draven and Mothma didn't object; they knew how capable he had been on other assignments, and they trusted he could do this job. _

_ To the council, it was presented as another rescue mission, but just a few selected people knew it wasn’t.  _

_ Draven had been perfectly clear about the instructions: locate the defector, get the information, and don’t leave evidence they ever made contact. They couldn’t let the Empire know about their plans to fight back, and Cassian had no trouble eliminating any threats to make it work. _

_ He was set to meet the defector in a gas station not far away from the community; meanwhile, Kay would keep an eye on the surroundings from a small building on the hill side that faced the place. There was no one else he trusted more to watch his back than Kay.  _

_The_ _moment he set foot on the gas station the defector -Tivik- appeared from inside the store immediately making his way towards him, turning every two steps or so to watch over his shoulder as if he was being followed._

_ “Sorry for the delay, I came as fast as I could,” Cassian said with an apologetic tone and the friendliest tone he could muster.  _

_ “We need to hurry. They might find us soon!” Tivik hissed and Cassian had to stop him from practically running past him into the car “C’mon. I’ll tell you all I know on the way back, but we need to go now!” The man’s desperate expression told Cassian he wasn’t going to talk until he felt safe; pushing the situation could only make the man suspicious. _

_ “Okay let’s go” he took one last look at the gas station, searching for anything that screamed ambush, before getting back inside the car.  _

_ Not knowing how long it would take for Tivik to tell him everything, Cassian decided to drive exactly the opposite way of where Yavin lV was. It didn’t matter if he had to drive two hours straight in the wrong direction. _

_ From the passenger's seat Tivik kept on sporadically looking outside the window and back at where the gas station had disappeared a few minutes ago. Cassian had to remain from letting the irradiating nervousness from the man affect him, focusing instead on finding a way to get the information. _

_ “Okay we are around fifteen minutes away from Yavin lV“ he commented hoping it would work to calm down Tivik “What was so important you had to warn everyone about?”  _

_ “The Empire. They are getting stronger.” Tivik couldn’t complete more than a sentence without looking outside the window again. Cassian was starting to get annoyed by it, getting the whole story would take longer if Tivik didn’t focus for more than just a few seconds. _

_ “Don’t worry. No one’s following us.” The declaration brought the man’s attention back to Cassian “We’ve got lookouts watching us ever since we left the gas station, they would have contacted me already if we were being followed” he explained _

_ Tivik didn’t need to hear more before letting himself totally slump in the seat, his demeanor changing to a more composed one that screamed total exhaustion.  _

_ “They just made functional another munitions factory. They want more ammo to make a statement, eliminate whole towns if needed!” The urgency of the situation gave the man enough energy to continue telling what he knew. _

_ “How do you know that?” _

_ “I heard some higher ups talk. They thought there could be some rebellion in the communities and they needed to stop it before it started.” _

_ “You know their names?” _

_ “Yes. One of them is Krennic, he’s in charge of literally everything” Cassian remembered seeing the man once, back when the Empire had just established its hold on Yavin lV; he had only appeared to remind everyone they were now working for him, and ever since that day he never visited again, only sending his lackeys to make sure Yavin lV was still providing enough. _

_ “Who else?” _

_ “A man named Galen Erso, he’s Krennic’s right hand, he’s in charge of all what happens in the factories” the name didn’t ring any bells.  _

_ “Do you know the location of the factories?” _

_ “No. Just a few people know.” The main reason they hadn’t been able to fight back was that no one knew exactly the location of any of the Empire’s bases. Anytime a patrol went to harass one of the communities they made sure no one followed them back to their base, killing on sight anyone who was presumably suspicious. Their tactics seemed to be very strict as even their own workers were kept in the dark from a lot of stuff too. “Mostly everyone lives in the factories or a small living unit near it, but sometimes they move people around in vans, with all painted windows so we don’t see the route” _

_ “How did you escape?” Seeing all those regulations it was even harder to believe this wasn’t a trap. _

_ “A friend helped me make a hole in the gas tank of the van, it ran out of gas in the middle of the highway and I took the chance to run away”  _

_ “You don’t even know which highway it was?” Cassian had to raise an eyebrow at this. _

_ “No, but I know it’s south from the gas station” Tivik was really trying to amend his lack of information “Less than a day’s walk” as if nodding his head multiple times could convince Cassian of the legitimacy of his word.  _

_ “And where did you get the radio to contact us?” _

_ “I found it in an abandoned camp. It was a lucky strike wasn’t it?” The memory brought a smile to the man’s face “I also found water in there, I couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to find water and even help!”  _

_ “Yeah, a lucky strike” Cassian analyzed the information he had obtained this far, looking for anything left he needed to investigate before he had to get rid of Tivik “Did you hear when they might be planning on using all the guns” _

_ “No. They said they would just wait for any sign of rebellion to use them” that’s the last thing he needed to know “Hey, how far are we?”  _

_ “Just a few minutes away” he didn’t know how long it would take for Tivik to realize it had already been more than fifteen minutes and they were nowhere near any towns or buildings; he needed to act now.  _

_ “Wait. Why are we stopping?” The sudden stop of the car had Tivik looking out of the window again. His distraction gave Cassian the opportunity he needed to pull his knife from where he kept it hidden under the seat; by the time Tivik turned around he had the knife ready, stabbing the man directly through the heart before he put up a fight. _

_ Tivik’s lifeless body dropped against the door, fresh hot blood spilling from the hole the knife left in his chest. _

_ Cassian put the knife away, reaching now for the walkie-talkie to inform Kay of the situation “Kay. I’m on my way back”  _

_ “Copy that. There are no signs of patrols near the gas station.” _

_ Getting back to the gas station was quick; faking Tivik’s death took longer.  _

_ He needed to make it as convincing as possible for the Empire to buy it. A single stab exactly through the heart was suspicious; this needed to look like a rather hasty killing done by a group of survivors. He stabbed the dead body a couple more times before leaving it lying in the gas station, and taking the car to Kay’s lookout from where they needed to make sure the plan had worked. _

_ When the patrol eventually came, they found the wandering corpse of Tivik, walking around the highway that passed by the gas station.  _

_ Cassian saw from the lookout how just one man stepped out of the car, going directly to inspect the not-so-dead man.  _

_ The corpse of what used to be Tivik turned to face the approaching man; already baring his disgusting teeth ready to bite anything on his way.  _

_ He was put down within seconds, a single gunshot to his head finally killing him. _

_ Once the man returned to the car and drove away Cassian’s job was done. _

———————————————————————————————————————

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there weren’t a lot of zombies In this chapters but I promise there will be lots of them in the future.  
> And yeah maybe I’m following the tradition of not using ever the word zombie directly in the story, like in The Walking Dead, but I half got the inspiration from there, so... yeah. Also, fun fact, all chapter titles are taken from Episodes of The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking.
> 
> Next chapter will be about Jyn waking up in Yavin lV, and some more backstory.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	3. What happened and what’s going on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy May the 4th!  
> I hope you’re enjoying the day and staying safe inside your houses.  
> Thank you for reading, comments,and kudos.  
> Enjoy.

The first thing Jyn noticed when she woke up, was that she had no idea where the fuck she was. 

The bedroom was small, and barely decorated; it actually just had enough to call itself a bedroom: a small bed, a chair, and a nightstand with  _ surprisingly _ a functional lamp that was the only thing illuminating the place. 

She couldn’t recall the last time she was somewhere with electricity.

The second thing Jyn noticed once she was awake, was a persistent throbbing located on the side of her head. It wasn’t completely painful, but surely enough it was distracting. It also seemed to work as a good remainder of how she had ended up there in the first place _.  _

She was going to kill those two idiots when she saw them again.

As if her day wasn’t going bad enough already, the third thing she noticed after waking up was that she couldn’t move her right hand. She found it safely handcuffed to one of the bedposts effectively restraining her movements leaving her attached to the bed with no escape opportunities.

No matter how hard she pulled at her restraints, the handcuffs held still. 

Idly she thought that if they wanted to kill her, they would have done it already. Now all she had to do was wait for someone to realize she was awake so she could talk her way out of there. 

Unfortunately, she had to wait for about an hour before there was finally a knock on the door.

Without invitation the door opened, letting in a tall woman who notably stood out in the dark-blue room with her almost-all-white outfit. She took the few steps to the small chair that faced the bed, sitting down unceremoniously. 

A voice in the back of her mind noted how strange it was to find someone so well-dressed and styled nowadays. 

This woman was someone important, and this place must have really big resources if they had electricity adn something that kept their clothes so clean and washed. 

After her, a man entered the room, setting himself between the woman and the entrance. A perpetual scowl plastered on his face. 

Jyn eyed both individuals with a daring glare; sitting up in the bed as good as she could with her right arm pulled back. 

“Good morning, or should I say night?” The woman spoke with a calm and controlled tone of voice as if she were talking to a long time friend. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions and I’ll be glad to answer all of them, but first let me just say I am sorry for the particular way you were brought here and the handcuffs, but those are normal precautions we take with new people” 

“Where am I?” She didn’t care about apologies, her tone implied much; she wanted answers and a way out of there as soon as possible.

“You’re in a safe place” the woman smiled kindly even though it wasn’t the answer Jyn wanted “You’re in Yavin IV. Before the rise of the dead, this place was a small self-sustaining neighbourhood outside the city, safely guarded and protected. Those were the main reasons it survived the end of the world. Nowadays it serves as a safe community for everyone who seeks a place to call home in this terrible times”

Out of the corner of her eye, Jyn caught some movement from the doorway; someone else was watching the conversation, staying mainly outside of the room. Taking a quick glance she realized it was one of the idiots she met in the school, the one she had ended up locked inside the classroom with.

“Why did you bring me here?” she threw the question at the woman while still glaring at the idiot who didn’t look amused by the situation and just rolled his eyes at her glare.

“We need your help” 

“My help?” she asked with a dry laugh. What kind of help could she offer these people? By the pure looks of it they were definitely doing better than her.

“You see, we think you might have some information useful to us” without meaning to, she remembered the sudden interest the man had had at her gun back in the school.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” she wasn’t going to play along so easily; if it was the only thing they wanted from her she had to use it to her advantage.

This time it was the man who had entered after the woman who spoke “Don’t play games with us girl; you were in possession of a gun with the Empire’s crest. Where did you get it? Did someone give it to you? Do you work for them?” 

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” she explained starting to get mad by the second “I don’t fucking know anything about any Empire; and really? All of this because one gun?” What was so special about it? “I already told him. I found it” she gestured to her acquaintance.

“We know that’s not true. Just tell us where you got it” 

“Okay, let's just all take it easy” the woman interjected again, trying to play peacekeeper between everyone in the room. No one spoke while she seemed to meditate her next words “Please let me talk to our guest alone” she told the older man who looked outraged at the request, but without further questioning obeyed.

The woman waited until both men left the room; safely closing the door behind them. 

“We know you didn’t just find it. Please, this information is very much needed for our cause” 

“Cause?” 

“Even though we have survived, so have other people and communities. Some of them declared themselves the leaders of all and have been breathing down our necks nonstop; making us work for them for minimal retribution. We just want to be free from their hold, we need a chance to fight back. The problem is they have such a well thought security system we haven’t been able to follow them back to any of their places. If we don’t know their location, we can’t fight back”

“And you think the weapon I have belongs to them?” 

“Yes. The Empire tends to mark its property, that’s how we know your gun used to belong to them” Jyn remembered noticing the small white circle painted on the side of the gun, but she hadn’t given it any second thought. 

“What do I get in return if I help you?” Now it was time to bargain and gain something for all her troubles.

“If you agree to help us, and your information is true, I’ll be glad to offer you a place with us” 

“I don’t have the slightest interest in forming part of whatever this is” she had learned, even before the end of the world, everyone was on their own. What she learned  _ after _ the end of the world was that places like these never lasted. She was fine on her own, and the last thing she needed was to worry about being thrown in the middle of the civil war this place was going to join.

“Then we can offer you transport, food and supplies so you can safely continue your travels” 

Now,  _ that _ sounded better, but too good to be true.

“How do I know you won’t just drop me in the middle of nowhere after I tell you what I know?” The woman was the only one who didn’t look like she wanted to kill her this far, and even she could be lying “Or worse, how do I know you won’t kill me?”

“You have my word” she said as if that was supposed to give Jyn some reassurance “Sorry for my manners, I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Mon Mothma. I used to be a senator for the state before this, and now I’m the leader of this community. I’ll make sure personally our agreement is respected. You don’t have to worry about it.” 

“I want a car, food to last me even a month, clothes, a better gun and ammo” Jyn expected the senator would refuse some of her demands, after all, a month of food for her could feed a family for a pair of weeks if distributed wisely. 

“Deal. Now, I would like to know the name of the woman who will help us”

“Jyn Erso” she replied easily enough, if this had happened before she would have lied, but changing names didn’t matter any more, there was no way they could trace it back to anything or anyone.

“Thank you for aiding us in this problem Jyn. So now, can you tell me where you got the gun?”

“I stole it from a group of idiots I encountered in a town, not far from the school where you kidnapped me.”

“Can you take us back there?”

“Yes”

_________________________________________________________________________

  * _Flashback -_



_ It was the end of June when the first videos appeared everywhere online.  _

_ Out of nowhere, people were getting sick all around the world, and no one knew what was causing it.  _

_ The videos showed how ‘apparently’ normal people became aggressive, attacking everyone in their proximity, going as far as to even biting them. This set a collective panic within weeks, fueled even more by the lack of true information provided by the governments worldwide.  _

_ Back then, when it had just begun, Jyn had been running from a previous failed job in D.C.  _

_ The chaotic state of the situation and the people currently on her tail made her decide to lie low for a few weeks; choosing a small motel away from any main highways. The small establishment was run by an old lady who could barely do the work anymore; still, the place was cheap and considerately clean for her standards. _

_ It was in that same motel where she first ran face to face with one of those ugly bastards. _

_ She was coming back from a quick trip to the nearest store, unloading the recently bought food and supplies she estimated would last 2 weeks.  _

_ The parking lot of the motel was empty, and it might have been the principal reason she heard the noise just in time. _

_ It was the single most weird and disturbing noise she had ever heard in her entire life. It was like a growling of sorts, something out of a horror movie or a nightmare, mixed with a weird raspy breathing that just couldn’t belong to a normal person.  _

_ She turned around, ready to defend herself from whatever was making such a horrific noise, and the last thing she expected to see was the old lady owner of the motel walking towards her. _

_ With just one quick look she could tell everything about the old lady was wrong: her skin had lost all of its color, being replaced by a pale grayish tone; her movements were slow and difficult, as if she had to draw all her body with each step she took; the worst part were the eyes, void of anything that once made them human, fixated on her with a look which reminded her of hungry animals ready to attack their prey. _

_ This was a new situation, and Jyn was afraid to admit she didn’t know what to do.  _

_ The old lady didn’t stop her pace; instead, she got a little bit faster as Jyn tried to put distance between them. _

_ What was she supposed to do? Run? Kill her? Knock her out? Could she even be knocked out? Was she still the woman who had so kindly rented her a room?  _

_ The thoughts distracted her long enough for the lady to catch up, because the next thing she knew she was on the floor, with the old lady on top of her baring her teeth trying to bite anything it could reach.  _

_ Luckily, out of reflex, she had managed to put her arm between her and the lady, trying to push her off while simultaneously searching for the small knife she kept hidden in her boot. _

_ Remembering all those videos she had seen and eventually deciding this thing wasn’t that old lady anymore, she recovered from the previous shock and didn’t hesitate when she dug the knife in the side of the thing’s head. _

_ Blood came running down the wound and Jyn pushed the corpse off of her. _

_ For a moment, she thought she was losing her mind. _

_ Whatever had just happened couldn’t be real. It had to be another nightmare, a new very creative one.  _

_ Deep down she knew it wasn’t. _

_ She needed to get it together, this wasn’t the best place to stay overthinking what just had happened. First things first, she had to get rid of the corpse; the last thing she needed right now were cops after her too. _

_ After getting rid of the corpse, she returned to her car to take all her supplies back to her room. After what just happened, there was no way she would be wandering around the next few days; it was definitely better to stay inside. _

_ The next few days seemed to blend all together.  _

_ She had left the TV turned on all the time, trying to stay updated on the situation; ironically, there was nothing new on them; an emergency state was never declared, but it was still advised for people to stay inside; department stores were being emptied; highways were overcrowded with desperate people leaving all major cities; it was chaotic. _

_ During those days the first cities began to fall, Washington and New York among them. The blackouts that had been going on and off led to a permanent one five days later. Two days later, all radio signals were dead, and Jyn decided this was worse than what she originally thought. _

_________________________________________________________________________

Shortly after Senator Mothma left the room there was another knock at her door.

This time, whoever it was, waited for permission to enter.

“Come in,” Jyn called, sitting at the edge of the bed; easy to do now that she was finally free from her handcuffs thanks to Senator Mothma.

Her visitor was another woman, she looked to be around her own age _ ,  _ but aside from the age, there was really nothing else similar.

“Hi my name’s Shara, and apparently I’ll be your babysitter” the teasing tone Shara used made Jyn like her more than all previous visitors “First, you should take this” she took a step closer to give Jyn a glass of water and pill she had been carrying “It will help with the headache”

“Thanks” she accepted them; quickly taking the med to stop the annoying headache. 

“You’re welcome” Shara shrugged, taking a step back to put space between them “So.. Jyn is it? What about I lead you to where the bathroom is so you can take a nice shower? You sure look like someone who could use one.” 

She wasn’t mad at how the other woman had eyed her, she knew she looked like shit and a far call from anything considerably clean.

“You mean a real shower?” She continued to be surprised by this place. Was there something they didn’t have?

“Yep, with warm water and even soap. Hard to come by these days” Jyn couldn’t really remember when was the last time she had had a decent bath; might have been so long ago that just the idea of finally having one boost her mood noticeably. 

As soon as Shara was out of the room Jyn followed her immediately. A nice shower was the least this people could offer after they had just kidnapped her.

“I left you some clothes inside, I’m pretty sure they’ll fit just fine.” Shara said as she opened the door to the bathroom; stepping aside to let Jyn in. “Take your time. I know how it is to get one decent shower after a really long time. I’ll be downstairs when you’re done.” And with that she was gone. 

The bathroom wasn’t anything but ordinary, but once you haven’t seen one clean and functional in months Jyn might as well though it was a dream.

At the end, she followed Shara’s advice. She stayed inside the shower until her skin wrinkled; she hadn’t felt so great and clean in ages. After getting dry she put on the clothes that were left for her; underwear, a pair of jeans, a brown plain t-shirt, socks and even a jacket.

In less than 10 minutes she was walking down the stairs to find Shara. She found her sitting in the living room of the place, casually reading a book. 

For a moment Jyn thought she was still unconscious; how could a place so normal exist in the middle of the end of the world? How could a place with water and electricity and people who still did normal things like reading a book could still exist among all the chaos?

Shara noticed her presence and set her book down “Ok, I see you’re ready. Now let’s go get some food” she said making her way to the front door. 

“Outside?” Jyn had automatically thought that food  _ obviously _ meant going to the kitchen.

“Yeah, I know it’s weird. All houses do have kitchens, but the council thought it would be easier to distribute all the food if everyone ate at the same place.” Shara explained as they both walked out of the house “Has worked out this far.”

Once outside, Jyn took in the full sight of the place. 

It looked as if the apocalypse had skipped it entirely; the only thing giving it away was the tall wall appearing from behind the houses and at the end of the street. Everything else looked just like another pre-apocalypse neighborhood; down to the same type of houses with matching colors, gardens, sidewalks and everything.

If that wasn’t weird enough, people also acted as if everything was just great. As they walked down the street, two people passed by jogging, and in one porch there was an old couple just sitting there enjoying the general view of the sky. 

Jyn had been to other communities before, but none were as peaceful and well established as this one. 

The ‘cafeteria’ was at the end of the street; it was set up on a lone terrain, with the tables and chairs simply housed under an improvised roof made of dozens of different materials.

The amazing smell coming from inside was too good to resist. 

“Go crazy, you can grab anything you want” Shara said taking a sit in one of the tables closest to the street “I’ll wait here, I already had dinner” 

Jyn didn’t need to be told twice. She left Shara and went straight for the row of tables on one side of the place; the food presented on them like a buffet. There were so many things that smelled and looked delicious that she wanted to try all of them; in the end, she practically put one of each on her tray, only returning to the table when there was enough food piled up threatening to fall off.

Aside from the raised eyebrows Shara didn’t say anything. 

During her bath, she had made a mental note to get more information about the place. The more she could get about it, the better; just in case anything came in handy if they happened to betray her. 

Right now, Shara was her best shot at getting the info she needed.

“How long was I out?” She asked after finishing the last bite of her hotdog. 

“For what I’ve been told, around one or maybe two hours” 

Jyn’s eyebrows knitted, one or two hours were enough to get someone miles away; for all she knew she was already in another state.

She continued eating while looking for something to ask next that wouldn’t be too suspicious.

“So... you’re the one in charge of babysitting everyone who arrives here?” She asked casually, trying to pass it for a small chit-chat.

“Usually, no. There are other people in charge of that. I normally go out on supply runs or I just help around the place.” 

“Then why are  _ you  _ babysitting me?” Jyn remembered Shara hadn’t been particularly happy when she introduced herself as her assigned babysitter.

“Cassian asked if I could help. He’s the one who ended up locked with you inside the classroom.” Oh, and she did remember the idiot; it was hard to forget when someone put your life in danger by being careless “Apparently, he thought you would be a handful for the poor things who  _ do _ the babysitting” Shara explained with a bit of humor.

“He’s an idiot. It was his fault we ended up locked in the first place” if his stunt at the school hadn’t been enough to get under her skin; his annoying presence at her interrogation did the trick.

“Well that’s weird, he’s usually very careful” Shara looked genuinely surprised at her statement “I know he seems to be too serious or uptight, but he’s a really nice person and a good friend. I think you could really get along.” Yeah,  _ right. “ _ My husband and I met him when we first arrived here. He technically gave us the tour of the place and helped us the first few days” 

“When did you arrive?” She was happy to change the conversation; Shara was putting too much effort in making sure she liked her friend, something that wasn’t going to happen.

“Almost 4 months ago. It was a miracle we found this place. I was 7 months pregnant at the time” 

“You were pregnant?” Jyn couldn’t imagine it; being pregnant during the apocalypse sure sounded like a death sentence.

“Yes, I found out a few days before everything went to hell. Imagine how difficult it is to run from the death when you’re transforming into a ball with zero physical condition whatsoever” 

“Sounds awful”

“I mean, it was. Thankfully, we found this place and now we are safe” 

“Is it really safe?”

“As safe as a place can be these days. It has really tall walls, to protect us from the dead or the living; there are patrols at the entrance and at 3 lookout towers; and we haven’t had an accident in months” Shara seemed a bit proud at the last statement. 

“Sounds nice”

“It is. So.. why aren’t you staying?” 

Jyn was taken back by the question; as much as she had been digging for information apparently so had Shara.

“I’m fine on my own”

“I’m sure of that; no one can survive this long outside, less alone.” 

“I’ve been with a few groups of survivors. As much as strength is in the numbers; too many people are also a disadvantage”

“Well, maybe you’ll change your mind” 

“I don’t think so”

“A lot of people have found their home here. Me and my family included. You could too” Shara’s fond smile somehow reassured Jyn, and at the same time made her regret starting a conversation at all. 

Deciding it had been enough Jyn finished the rest of her food in silence. For her part, Shara didn’t say anything either; waiting patiently for her to finish eating. 

After the dinner, they walked back to the house in silence. The place had started to look emptier, after everyone started leaving to get some sleep.

When they made it back to the house Shara explained she would come by tomorrow morning so they could go get some breakfast before Jyn had to leave for her mission. After Shara left, Jyn didn’t take long before she was getting ready to sleep, enjoying the security and blankets the place offered. 

She needed to get all the rest she could get, after all, tomorrow was going to be a really long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it.  
> Honestly I had half of the flashback already written since the first chapter because originally I was going to put it there, so it’s weird that somehow this lasts weeks have been helpful in knowing what happens with collective panic and pandemics in general. Not the best way to learn stuff but anyways.  
> Stay Safe. <3


	4. Hostiles and Calamities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Yes I’m back with another chapter. Sorry it took me long to update but here’s an extra long chapter. Thank you all for the patience, kudos, comments, and all the love. Hope you like it.

**Chapter 4 - Hostiles and calamities**

Morning came faster than expected. 

Before Jyn knew, she had already finished her breakfast and was on her way with Shara to the entrance to the community.

She felt calm walking down the streets of Yavin IV; the peacefulness of the place being too contagious to resist. All she wanted for this day was for it to be over so she could go back to her old life; preferably, in a new car full of supplies. 

She had been so caught up in her fantasy of being far away from Yavin lV that she hadn’t realized they were reaching their destination. 

The entrance of the community was an expansion of the wall that circled the place: high enough so the dead couldn’t get inside and high enough climbing it without being seen was impossible. In front of the gate there was a car, two men walked around it making sure everything was in perfect state.

“There’s no way I’m going with them” she told Shara, nodding at the two men. Wasn’t this community big enough for them to send someone else with her? Another two people who weren’t the idiots she met back in the school?

“Sorry, Senator Mothma arranged this” for her part, Shara didn’t sound sorry about the situation; if anything her tone was neutral or disinterested “By the way, this is yours” she handed Jyn the backpack she had been carrying since they met up before breakfast “It has some food, water, a rope…”

“A gun, a knife?” she questioned; if they were taking her outside she would need something to defend herself with.

“No gun and no knife. Senator Mothma..”

“Of course” Jyn interrupted Shara before she could tell her the excuse Senator Mothma had made up to.

“Sorry” 

“Whatever” 

They continued walking towards the car until the man Shara had mentioned was her friend _(-Cassian-_ her brain supplied) realized they were there and left what he was doing to go meet them.

“See, I told you I’d get her here in time.” Shara told him in a mockery tone.

“ _Just_ in time” he said to make a point.

“Just in time isn’t late” she replied pleased with herself for the achievement.

This time Cassian completely ignored Shara, probably giving up on that conversation and turned to address Jyn “Just leave your stuff inside, we’re almost ready to leave” 

“Almost” Shara pointed out nodding towards the silhouette of a man watching them from a few feet away. It was the man who had questioned her along with Senator Mothma back when she first woke up.

“Give me a moment” 

“No rush” Jyn said as Cassian went to meet with the man. She didn’t trust either of them, they were too mysterious and unreadable for her liking, it was better when she could know what to expect from people.

“Okay, here’s where I leave.” Shara said stealing Jyn’s attention from where the two men were talking. “Good luck. Try to not get bitten.” 

“I’ll try” she sarcastically promised. 

Out of nowhere, Shara gave her a quick parting hug Jyn didn't return, and turned around to walk away.

Jyn didn’t wait for Cassian to come back; going to leave her stuff in the car as soon as Shara was steps away. She threw her backpack inside the trunk beside a gallon of what she guessed was fuel, a tool box, and two other backpacks.

She looked around, pleased to know no one was watching. 

They were idiots to think she would agree to go without any weapons, the world these days wasn’t one where you could just walk outside defenseless; plus, she didn’t trust the two idiots she was traveling with to protect her if it came down to it. She knew they would try to get rid of her as soon as they could, but she wasn’t going to go without a fight. The car and supplies Senator Mothma had promised were her goal right now.

She reached for the closest backpack and started looking through the stuff inside. Like hers, it had food, water and a rope; plus, a flashlight, some matches and fortunately, two guns and a knife. She took one of the guns, strapping it to one side of her belt leaving space in the other for the knife. Carefully, she arranged her clothing so her jacket could hide almost completely her new weapons.

“Jyn Erso you arrived just in time” the voice startled her, but she reacted quickly closing the trunk, hiding the opened backpack from sight.

She turned to look at the owner of the robotic voice and snorted seeing who it was “Oh it’s you” she wasn’t the least pleased to see him again “I remember you” how could she forget the person who almost gave her a head injury.

“Apparently so” she didn’t like his judgy tone as he squinted his eyes examining her closely “I was assigned alongside Cassian for this mission. Seeing I already know your name and this mission requires communication you are allowed to call me Kay” 

“Just Kay?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. 

“Yes” _weird_ , but ultimately, not her problem. 

“Fine"

She waited for another stupid comment that sounded more like protocol than a common courtesy, but nothing came; instead, he didn’t even give her one last look before turning around heading for the driver’s seat. 

He was already seated inside the car, with the door still open, when the remark came.

“This is a bad idea. I think so and so does Cassian” she was completely sure he had talked loud enough on purpose, letting her hear his disapproval of the situation. Of course they weren’t happy to go with her, she wasn’t happy to go with them either, but Senator Mothma didn’t give a shit.

She was about to give him a piece of her mind, but Cassian returned exactly in that moment.

“You remember Kay” his tone had changed slightly, it wasn’t friendly, but a more relaxed one. Not anymore the military/devoid-of-fun tone he had been using with her ever since the school. 

“Yeah, we remember each other” she answered through the gritted teeth, forcing a not so sincere smile. 

Cassian lifted his shoulders in a boyish, what-can-you-do? Shrug “Don’t mind him. Sometimes he tends to say whatever comes into his brain, no second thoughts” 

“Why is she allowed to carry a gun?” Kay questioned from his spot in the driver's seat, making Cassian’s attention snap to her belt looking for where she was trying to keep her new gun hidden. Damn them. 

“I know how to use it” she tried to say as an explanation.

“That’s what I’m afraid of” Casian answered; Jyn watched as his calculating and serious expression emerged again, reading her movements and ready to fight back if necessary “Give it to me”

“We’re going outside, it's practically a war zone. You want me to risk my life helping you find these people? Then I’ll keep it” she said with a glare that dared him to fight her for the gun. Unfortunately, she realized, it wasn't doing the full work. No one was backing off and this was set to explode before it began. She decided to change her strategy, going back to her previous more relaxed stance, shrugging as she kept eye contact “Trust goes both ways” she added. 

Cassian seemed to think about it for a moment, ultimately rolling his eyes at her determination going around the car to make it to the passengers seat. 

She smiled at her little victory and opened the door to the back seat getting inside.

“You’re letting her keep it?” For how serious and robotic Kay had acted ever since she arrived, he _did_ sound worried this time. “Are you interested in the probability of her using it against you?” He lowered his voice as if she couldn’t hear everything from the back seat “It’s high. Very high” she could only roll her eyes at this.

“Let’s get going” 

_———————————_

The town (Lost Creek, as they found out once Jyn pointed it in the map) was approximately 40 minutes away from Yavin IV, and during the whole ride Cassian couldn’t help but think over and over again about the conversation he had had with Draven before leaving.

He had known from the beginning there was more to this mission than what the council had said. Of course, only a few people knew, Draven and him included. Sometimes, the council liked to keep thinking this world could be rebuilt with good intentions and no bad actions whatsoever. They were convinced they didn't have as much blood on their hands as the Empire. But it was only the opinion of people who had been safely guarded and protected ever since all of this began; unlike everyone else who had arrived later at Yavin IV, people who hadn't had the luxury of deciding to not shed blood to survive. 

Cassian knew most of them must have done tough calls to survive this far, just like he had. If killing and lying were necessary for the survival of most of what was left of humanity, he had no problem being the one doing it for the sake of everyone. He could live with it. And today’s mission could be a solid beginning for it to happen.

First, they needed to find the gang Jyn told them she met back in the town. They were most likely one of those ‘on the move’ squads the Empire had to patrol the surroundings; hopefully, they knew where the main base was. The council had made it his mission to follow them back to where their base was; subtlety was advised, they couldn’t risk the Empire knowing they were planning something. However, they didn’t have enough time for that. The Empire’s threats and demands grew each day, and Yavin IV could barely keep up. That’s why the reality of the mission was to find the gang, kill everyone but the leader, interrogate him using torture if needed, confirm the obtained information, kill him too, and head back to Yavin lV to prepare an attack.

As if things weren’t interesting enough, the world turned out to be a very small place. 

How are the odds of coincidentally finding a woman who shared _-a really not common surname-_ with one of the Empire’s leaders? Whoever this Jyn Erso was, she knew more about the Empire than what she let on, and his side mission was to find her connection to it. 

Back when Senator Mothma had told them the name of the woman, everyone had panicked; he included, although he hadn’t let anyone know, not even Kay. Senator Mothma had immediately controlled the situation, she seemed to trust the woman and was somehow positively sure she wasn’t working with their enemy. After all, keeping her last name was a dangerous move if she were a spy. Still, she could give them information about the man in charge of controlling all the factories the Empire possessed; a major hit to them could destabilize the Empire for months.

Seeing his previous interactions with Jyn had included death glares, eye rolls and the minimum verbal communication from both parties; his best shot for getting anything out of her was to change his approach. He would try a friendlier and more laid back one, see how she responded to it, and if it was enough maybe she would let her guard down for a bit; hopefully, long enough so she could tell him everything important she knew about the Empire.

“We’re going to leave the car at the outskirts of the town. Seeing we don’t know if there’s anyone inside, we can’t risk getting spotted easily. Can you still locate their base if we arrive from the east?” He asked looking back over his shoulder at Jyn.

Kay took the deviation from the main road they had seen in the map; a small road which would leave them on the woods behind the town at just a 10-minute walk away from it. 

“Yes. It isn’t that big of a place anyways” she answered still looking out of the car’s window.

Apparently getting a friendly conversation started would be tougher than what he thought. It made him remember why all their previous interactions had ended with both of them ready for a fight.

Shortly after, the car was parked; carefully placed behind some trees that would block its view from the town. There, at the limit of the forest, the only sound was the one of birds passing by flying deep into it. Nothing came from the town.

After grabbing their backpacks they started heading for the closest buildings: a few houses conveniently close to a water tower that just looked like the perfect place for a look out. As they reached the tall structure, he noted Kay thought the same: eyeing the tall construction and its stability, looking out for broken pieces or missing parts which would make it dangerous to use. 

“This could work” Kay muttered giving one of the pillars a kick testing its resistance.

“What?” Jyn asked, oblivious to their conversation; looking around the place for any close threats, holding tight his old knife _-her new knife-_ in her hand. 

“Can their base be seen from up there?” He asked her nodding at the water tower.

Jyn eyed the tower and then them; from her expression, he could see she had most likely insulted them in many creative ways, all before shrugging and deciding it wasn’t worth sharing “They use the police station as their base, it's on the Main Street. I’m pretty sure you can practically see the highway from up there” her tone _did_ imply they were idiots.

He and Kay shared a look ignoring the insult. Their plan continued being the same.

“Kay will keep an eye from up there, just in case. We’ll stay in whatever building is across the street from the police station. First we need to see if they’re in town”

“Fine by me” she said and continued walking towards the closest house; not turning around to see if he had followed.

He turned to give Kay one last order before following her “Only contact me if you see any movement inside the town or from the highway” 

Kay nodded and started climbing the ladder at the side of the tower.

Cassian had to pick up his pace to catch up with Jyn who had already wandered a few meters away, walking through the backyard of one house. There were no dead people in sight, but out of habit he had unsheathed his knife just to be prepared. 

“How did you find these people anyways?” He asked, careful to keep his voice low, just in case there were people (living or dead) near them.

“It was just a coincidence. I was passing by, I heard some noise, and then I went to see what was happening and there they were” she didn’t look back at him _(again),_ and continued making her way through the outside of the house going straight for the street. 

The street looked mostly desolated, with just a lone walker wandering between some parked cars. 

“How many are there?”

“Four at least, but I’m pretty sure there are more”

“And how did you steal the gun?” _That_ was the question that finally made her stop right on her tracks to turn and face him with an irritated expression.

“Full of questions aren’t we?” 

Cassian threw his arms up in surrender, which didn’t erase completely the glare off her face “I just want to know more about the people we’re trying to find” as she realized he had a point, she only let out an exasperated sigh that made the few strays of hair that had fallen on her face to go back in place. 

“I was staying in one of these houses when I heard screams. Those idiots were harassing some people, I might have stolen one of their cars and a gun, shot one of them in the leg and made them follow me so they would leave the people alone”

He was aware they hadn’t known each other for long, and he didn’t think she could be the type of person who went out of her way to help people, but somehow he didn’t doubt her story. 

Jyn waited for more questions, but Cassian knew she was mostly done for now; her abrupt stop and plain answers had implied that much. He could ask her more later.

Once they reached the street, the lone walker Cassian had seen before noticed their presence, immediately making its way towards them.

“I’ve got it” he offered, walking past Jyn to where the not-so-dead person was. He swiftly evaded its reaching arms and stabbed the head with a direct strike. The dead body slumped to the ground as he pulled his knife back feeling it from the skull.

“Senator Mothma mentioned this was all because you needed to get rid of the Empire. Who are they?” Jyn asked from where she had stayed on the sideways from where she analyzed all his movements.

“You’ve never heard of them?” 

“Obviously no, otherwise I wouldn’t be asking”

“Right, sorry.” His first instinct had been to respond with a more sarcastic and impolite answer; however, he controlled himself before a snarky remark escaped his mouth “Before the apocalypse, the Empire was a corporation that mostly operated under the radar, no one knows how big it truly was, just that they were involved in very illegal stuff. They did everything from scientific investigations to a mass production of firearms and ammo. Their leaders and some employees survived the apocalypse and with time they started gaining numbers. They have their own ammo factories, protected communities and a main base from where they organize everything”

“But it wasn’t enough, right?”

“No.” He continued explaining everything to Jyn as they continued their way down the street. It was a slow pace that allowed them to talk and keep an eye on their surroundings at the same time. This far there were zero dead people insight “When they realize they were stronger than most communities, they started appointing themselves as the protectors of a new world order. Their goal is to unite all communities so the human race can survive but under their rules. They arrived at Yavin lV almost six months ago. They took all the stuff and food they wanted and stated we were now under their _protection_ ; as payment we had to turn over a load of food and supplies each week. We barely have enough for everyone and they just keep on raising the quote every time. Also, they tend to shoot first and ask questions later kind of policy. That’s why we want to fight back” 

Jyn seemed to be processing everything he had just told her. He knew it was a lot. For a moment, he realized how stupid telling her all of that was. For all he knew, she could have a change of heart realizing the Empire could offer her more if she turned them over. He really hoped he was wrong, because being open and telling her the truth was working better for establishing a conversation.

 **“** I mean, they sound big. I don’t know how I never encountered them before” she finally said after a few seconds. 

“We think they mostly operate just around this area. The other communities that are harassed by them aren’t far from Yavin lV” 

“Are they part of this too?” 

“Not yet, they are scared. The idea is for us to make the first attack, find the Empire’s base, and see if they’ll follow”

“And if they don't?”

“We hope they will”

“Hope?” She eyed Cassian dubiously, her amused grin might as well have suggested he had just told her a very stupid joke.

“Rebellions are built on hope” he answered almost as a matter of fact. His answer didn’t seem to convince her enough.

“That’s a long shot of a thought” 

As the street continued downhill, it gave them a perfect view of a dozen walkers waiting for them in the middle of it. The view stopped them right on their tracks; the dead hadn’t seen them yet, but a wrong move or any loud noise could alert them of their presence.

“Last time I was here the streets were mostly alone” Jyn whispered beside him, her gaze never leaving the ‘herd’ of dead people. 

“They must have traveled from somewhere nearby” he whispered back. Nowadays it wasn’t rare to find the dead in places where there hadn’t been any before; as months passed by they had started vacating their initial areas to look for food. Some of these herds had even found their way to Yavin lV a couple of times.“We have to kill them”

“Wouldn’t it alert the Empire we are here? We can still make it going through the houses”

“Leaving them there it’s too risky.” In case they needed to make a run back to the car, having that herd in the middle of the street could very well get them caught “Plus, they won’t be visible from the Main Street” 

“What’s the plan?”

“Let’s split them up. You go left I go right and we make them follow us. Can you handle half of them?”

“I can handle _all_ of them. Can _you_ handle half of them?” She threw back through gritted teeth.

Again, Cassian refrained from giving into the almost-argument “Okay. Let’s go” 

Getting close enough to the herd was a tricky thing; they both had to approach from opposite sides of the street, carefully hiding behind parked cars and trees, stopping every once in a while to check on the other’s progress. 

Through signs, they had agreed one would go first and then the other would interrupt to effectively split up the herd. 

Cassian was the first one to appear through the cars, calling out to the bunch of dead people just a few meters away from him. Twelve pairs of _literally_ dead eyes turned in his direction. In seconds, the whole herd had started following him.

Just in time, the sound of broken glass coming from where Jyn had smashed a car’s windows at the other side of the street made the last six walkers of the pack turn around, forgetting all about him. 

With the herd divided, Cassian went to work on killing the remaining six. 

He guided the dead between two cars, making it so only one of them could get close to him at a time. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about being surrounded. 

The first one that came was easy to stop, a neat stab in the side of its head was enough. The next two came walking with no problem over the first one’s body eventually reaching him; his strategy of attacking one at a time proved successful as killing them only took _-again-_ a single stab to each one’s skull.

Now, with a pile of three corpses in the ground, the remaining three had trouble reaching him. All three of them ended stumbling and eventually falling down one on top of the other, forming a bigger pile. 

“Cassian!” Jyn calling his name momentarily caught all his attention. He put space between him and the still ‘alive’ people on the pile desperately trying to grab at his feet before looking over to where she was ending the last two from her half of the herd “Look out!” She pointed to one side of the road.

Apparently, the noise had attracted the attention of a few more walkers that were in the area. Four of them had already gotten rather close to where he was, threatening to leave him trapped between them and the pile of still-moving corpses.

Deciding he still had time to kill the initial three before the others arrived, he went to finish the job. The new height advantage he had on them helped; killing the one on top made it easier to kill the ones underneath. Without them putting up a fight, it ended rather quickly, just in time to defend himself from the upcoming ones. 

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jyn running fast around the cars arriving in time to put herself between him and the upcoming small herd, bloodied knife in hand ready to take all of them down. 

And just like that, he was left seeing Jyn taking out all four of them. 

He watched as she hit and stabbed anything from knee caps to skulls, dragging her knife like an expert using all her weight to knock down walkers and the momentum of her attacks to dig the knife deeper into the awaiting skulls. 

All previous thoughts of going to help were out of question as it was more than obvious he wasn’t needed. 

Within minutes, Jyn had all four bastards laying dead on the street. 

Later, he would realize he might have stayed a little longer even after it was all over, thankfully he had averted his stare as soon as she had turned around.

“You’re welcome” she sarcastically said, cleaning the knife with cloth he didn’t know where she had gotten from. 

He was glad he had let her keep his knife. 

The rest of the street turned up to be more tranquil. There were no more herds or lone walkers all the way up to even the Main Street. Their previous encounters with them made this stand out. Looked like someone was keeping the street continuously clean. 

Now, they needed to be extra careful about hiding, they couldn't know if someone from the Empire was guarding the police station from a hidden place. 

“Over here” Jyn called, heading for the door of a close building. 

It was a dinner directly across the street from the police department.

A bell rang when the door opened to let them in; fortunately, the place appeared to be also deserted. Cassian concentrated on the sounds of the place; there were no grunts or any other noise that alerted of someone else inside. 

“I’ll go check the place. Stay here and watch out for any signs of movement near the police station” he ordered her, taking off his backpack dropping it on the ground. 

“Yes sir” she replied with a singsong mockery tone.

The dinner itself wasn't big; it barely had more than 15 tables, a small narrow kitchen and an office near the back exit. There were no signs of walkers anywhere. The kitchen was emptied of any food or supplies, and the office was a total disaster. As a precaution he made sure the back door opened, and after confirming it could be an escape route he put the desk up against it obstructing it. If someone tried to enter they would hear the noise. 

Cassian returned to where Jyn had taken a table close to the window; it had a perfect view of the street surrounding the police station, but was not directly visible from its main entrance. 

“We have to keep a watch on the police station before we do anything else. Kay hasn’t reported any sign of movement anywhere so they’re most likely out of town.” He explained the situation.

“How long are we going to wait for them to show up then?” From the moment he had come back she hadn’t taken her eyes off the windows, seemingly focused on keeping watch and ignoring his existence.

“Up to four days”

“Four days?!” She turned her attention back to him, with raised eyebrows and widening eyes. 

“Yes. We guessed they won’t take too long to return, these ‘squads’ are stationed in permanent outposts, they don’t stay far away from them for long. If they haven’t shown up by sunset Kay will catch up with us here to set camp for the night”

“Just great” her previous shocked expression turned to one of utmost annoyance.

They stayed for minutes without talking. She continued keeping watch and ignoring him for the most part as he took a sit in the chair in front of her. 

With nothing better to do he noted this could be another great opportunity to dig more information. This far, he truly believed she didn’t know shit about the Empire; however, she could still be related to Galen Erso, and knowing something about one of the Empire’s leaders could be really helpful.

“So... what did you do before the apocalypse?” he casually asked. 

Without turning to meet his glance she voiced how apparently stupid the question was “Seriously?” 

“We don’t know how long we will be here, might as well try to make time fly faster” a lame excuse, but worth the try.

“Fine. Let’s say I did some independent work in computing” 

“And how did you end up alone? What happened to your family?” It was weird how nowadays this type of topic passed for normal conversation.

“I‘ve been on my own since years ago” Now that was interesting. He wasn’t entirely strange to those types of situations; he had been orphaned at one point himself, and working as a detective meant it was almost a daily topic at the office. 

“What happened to your parents?” 

“Well, my mom died when I was little and I haven’t seen my dad in a long time. Heck, I doubt he survived this bullshit” there was no immediate anger in her answer, but it still seemed to be a sore spot for her. 

“Sorry about that” he genuinely apologized.

“Doesn’t matter, it happened long ago” although this far she had kept her stare glued to the window, it had gotten distant and unfocused, as if remembering something. She slightly shook her head, maybe sending away those thoughts. “What about you? Is your family back in Yavin lV?” Her intentions were clear, she was eager to change the subject, or at least make it about him. She was done talking about her parents.

“No. The last time I saw my family was before all of this.” He clearly remembered the trip he had taken two months previous to the apocalypse to visit his sister, he never heard again of her after that. “I also doubt they’re alive”

She alternated between turning to look at him every other minute and not abandoning her job of keeping an eye on the outside. 

“Sorry.” Like him, she sounded genuinely sorry for his situation. “Shara told me she and her husband arrived a few months ago at Yavin lV. Did you use to live there? You know, before all of this?”

“No. I really think just around twenty people lived there from the beginning, everyone else arrived later. 

“Then how did you end up there?”

“Technically, they found us” 

“Us?” 

“Yeah. A pair of weeks before that happened I met Kay. He conveniently suggested staying together highly incremented our chances of survival. One day we crossed paths with a man doing a supply run for the community. He took us back, and they let us stay”

“Sounds nice” 

The radio _-which hadn’t made a sound so far-_ chirped to life and Kay’s voice echoed in the empty dinner.

“Cassian, there’s movement coming from the highway. One car is entering the town”

Just as Kay said, seconds later one car appeared on the street, stopping right in front of the police station. Two men appeared at the entry of the place looking around for any threats,guns in hand. When they made sure everything was okay all the doors of the car opened at the same time and men and women all carrying more guns with the Empire’s crest on it got out. They stayed stationed outside the vehicles as another man left the car pulling someone forcefully out behind him. He dragged this man (who had his head covered with a bag and his arms tied behind his back) to the entrance of the station with all the people previously guarding him following right behind. 

The mass of people mostly disappeared into the building leaving only 3 of their members on the outside, huddled up having a conversation. 

Cassian and Jyn had stayed still behind the window; watching as the 3 people parted ways, going completely in different directions. One of them walking straight towards the dinner. 

As soon as they realized what was going on, they hurriedly grabbed their backpacks and scurried to the kitchen. They needed to get out of there, or else, the whole mission would be a complete failure. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. I would love to read all your opinions in the comments. 
> 
> Stay safe.


	5. Hide and Seek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm back. Sorry for the long time, but school turned to be harder than expected. Hope you're doing okay.

**Chapter 5 - Hide and Seek**

Jyn and Cassian were fast enough to avoid being seen by the man entering the dinner. They were out on the street and running to the end of it in no time.

Cassian took the lead going through cars and fallen trash cans; sticking to the left side of the street using it as a cover for any lookouts that could be at the police station, but careful to avoid any places where a walker could surprise them. Jyn followed him closely; looking back every few seconds to make sure no one - death or alive- was following them. 

“We need to hide and wait until dark” Cassian whispered back over his shoulder, eyeing each one of the houses lined up at both sides of the street. 

“Follow me I know a place” she said, and walked past him heading for a specific house down the street. It was where she stayed last time, and if it hadn’t been for the screaming and her intervention they would’ve never found her. It was worth the shot for a temporary hiding spot.

Jyn remembered the house by the awful lawn decorations that were still standing in the yard despite the time it’s been since someone used to live there. Whoever it had been, he or she had had an awful taste in ornaments. 

Aside from just a pair of walkers wandering around, they made it to the front door without any problem. 

“Okay, I’ll check ...” Cassian started saying as soon as the door closed behind them.

“I’ll go upstairs” she decided to interrupt him before he could order her what to do; heading right away for the stairs that started a few steps away from the main entrance not giving him a chance to object. 

“Fine. I’ll check this floor and the basement” 

She didn’t stay to even see how he had rolled his eyes at her, continuing instead her way upstairs.

It hadn’t been that long ago since she had last been there, making it easy to remember the basic outline of all the house and specifically the rooms upstairs. She first went to inspect the closest one; it had been her favorite one with it’s tiny balcony and attached bathroom. 

Everything inside looked the same way as she had left it. 

Just for precaution she checked the bathroom, which was also with zero changes; however, on her way out, she saw through the big transparent door which led to the balcony what could potentially be a problem. A herd of walkers had gotten caught in the backyard making it impossible to exit through there, and leaving them with the front door as their only way out. 

Hopefully it wouldn’t matter, as they would only be there for a relatively short time; if she was right sunset was just a few short hours away. She decided to make sure the rest of the place was safe, and then she could go and talk with Cassian about the risk of staying versus going to search for another option with the risk of getting caught by the patrol outside. 

However, as the universe would have it, they wouldn’t even have time to talk about it; because as soon as she took another step down the hall, one of the doors at the end of it cracked open. 

Looking down she found the most probable cause of it. 

A nearly invisible thread had been cleverly set up so anyone walking down the hallway could pull it with just a step, and in doing so, it would start a chain reaction that somehow opened the door of the master bedroom.

“Damn it!” she cursed through gritted teeth as a parade of dead people started flooding the hallway. Immediately, she turned around and ran down the hallway and the stairs. 

Cassian was nowhere to be seen, most likely already checking the basement. 

She eyed the entrance and calculated that even if she used the door as cover it wouldn’t be enough to direct all the herd outside. They needed to leave.

“Cassian!” she screamed back over her shoulder as she got a hold of the door knob. She turned it to all sides with no luck in opening it. Apparently, the trap she had set off was more planned than what she had previously thought. 

Cassian emerged from the door that led to the basement and ran to catch up with her at the entrance.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, eyeing her up and down trying to find out if she was hurt. The increasing sound of the herd getting close to the stairs made him turn to see the actual problem just in time. “Oh no” 

“It’s locked!” She informed him of the situation, mentally cursing at the stupid door and pulling as hard as she could to open it with still no luck at all. 

“What do you mean it’s locked?” 

“What do you think it means?!” 

“Maybe I can open it” she stepped aside, letting him try by all means; although she highly doubted anything could work.

Meanwhile, the dead had finally reached the stairs; their desperation to get them made them stumble down the stairs forming a growing pile of moving limbs and biting mouths at the bottom of it. 

“Screw this” Jyn muttered, getting a firm grip on Cassian’s jacket and pulling him with her as she ran for the basement. With both exits blocked, their only remaining option was to find a safe place to lock themselves up. 

And once again, second day in a row, they were trapped with only a door separating them from another bunch of walkers who very much wanted to eat them. 

“How did we end up like this again?” Cassian asked, letting out a sight as he let himself drop against the wall of the small space. 

“All I have to say it’s that this had never happened to me before yesterday” she retorted, angry -to say the least- at their current situation. 

It was supposed to be an easy one day trip, and yet somehow she had had more close encounters with dead people and bad people in the span of a few hours than all her time alone in the past week. 

“You’re seriously blaming me right now?” he turned to address her

She shrugged at the inspection and continued to press her point “It’s just weird that I’ve been perfectly fine on my own; not once getting trapped like this, and now it happened two days in a row” 

“Oh, really? Like this herd didn’t just come from upstairs? Where you were supposed to be making sure there was no trouble?” his matter-of-fact tone was really starting to get on her nerves.

“This isn’t my fault” she turned to face him, chin high trying to make up for the height difference, and hands in a fist ready to punch him. For his part he wasn’t backing down, taking a step forward, arms crossed and not breaking eye contact carefully gauging her reaction. 

She was sure the argument would have continued until Kay came down to help them if something outside hadn’t caught Cassian’s attention first. 

In a second his whole focus had turned to the closed door and she was left trying to figure out what he was listening for. 

“Did you hear that?” he asked 

Maybe if she hadn’t been paying attention the sound would have been lost in the midst of growls and scratches, but knowing what to look for it was easy to figure out. 

“The front door” Apparently someone had miraculously opened it, and that could only mean the people who had set the trap (most likely the gang from the Empire) had come to see what they had caught. 

Without a second thought they both had drawn their guns; ready to shoot their way out of there if needed. 

Oddly enough, just a pair of steps echoed throughout the house, stopping at a safe distance from the bunch of dead people that just had started to realize the presence of another potential meal nearby. 

For a few seconds, there was no other noise than the growling of the walkers becoming quieter as they left the door alone going for the new person in the house. 

_What the fuck are they waiting for?_ Jyn thought. Whoever had come needed to get rid of the herd before they could get to them.

Her question was answered by the incomer charging a gun followed by at least a dozen gunshots that were sure to end the whole herd. 

Cassian had reacted faster than her and had managed to pull them both down against the floor even before the first gunshot was fired. The small space made it so that he was practically shielding her with his own body, and her first instinct had been to elbow him in the stomach but stopped herself as it had most likely been all out of reflex and an inconvenience of a small space. 

Even after Jyn heard the last shot, she decided to wait a few more seconds just to be sure; finally pushing Cassian off of her when she decided it was safe. For his part, he didn’t put any resistance and just went along when she stood up. 

Once again, just a set of footsteps continued their way towards them, stopping right outside the door. 

“Are you two okay?” asked a man; his voice sounded calm and genuinely worried about them as if they were long time friends. “Don’t worry, we are not your enemies” he explained with gentle humor. 

They looked at each other unsure on what to do next. Their only exit continued to be that door, and Kay wasn’t even aware they were trapped. There hadn’t been enough time to call him before. 

Their options sucked, and somehow something about the stranger’s voice irradiated a certain calm that made Jyn trust he wasn’t one of the Empire’s lackeys, but if he turned out to still be one of them, she had her gun ready to fight her way out of there.

Jyn was about to open the door but Cassian stopped her before she could grab a hold of the knob. 

“What are you doing?” he questioned under his breath. 

“We have to eventually get out anyway. I don’t know if you haven’t noticed but there’s no other way out” she retorted, and motioned at her gun so he could see she was prepared either way. 

He seemed to think about it for a second before nodding in agreement, and getting his own gun ready. 

Maneuvering between opening the door and retreating back a few steps to have a good enough space to shoot was tricky, but Jyn got it under control.

When the door opened, a man she had absolutely never seen before appeared before them. 

“See? We’re not your enemies” he explained once again, staring back at them with blind eyes. 

Another man appeared behind him, he stood with the stoic confidence of a bodyguard glaring at them over his partner’s shoulder. 

“Didn’t you hear him?” his tone was a harsh contrast against the one of the first man: it had zero friendliness and voiced the displease of having two strangers pointing their guns at them “We aren’t your enemies, put those guns down” 

The order didn’t immediately make them lower their guns, but looking at each other and coming to a silent agreement did it. 

Jyn knew that even if they put their guns away they would still be ready for anything; she trusted Cassian was thinking the same as her. 

Without further talk, both men left them and made their way into the house. 

“Are you going to stay there all day?” the first man’s voice asked all the way from most likely the living room. 

Jyn wasn’t still completely trusting of their new situation, but decided to play along for now. 

“Thank you for that” she said upon arriving at the living room; it was the least they could say after they had just saved them; even though Cassian didn’t exactly say anything entering after her. 

“You’re welcome” the first man they had met replaied, casually sitting on the couch of the place, like a pre-apocalypse reunion; his partner remained standing in one corner of the room, still holding the assault rifle he must have used to eliminate the herd. “I’m Chirrut Imwe, and this is Baze Malbus”

She kept both her and Cassian’s introductions short; deciding to rather find more about who rescued them. “How did you know we were in here?” 

“We were staying at the house next door, and I sensed trouble. So we came to help”

“Sensed?” Cassian voiced the question currently on her mind 

“Yes” the answer didn’t help to understand the weirdness of the explanation

“Don’t try to understand it” Baze told them seeing their confusion “We ended up in this middle-of-nowhere place because he  _ knew  _ we had to be here” 

“And I was right” Chirrut retorted smiling because he knew he had won that argument. Baze could only roll his eyes in response. Ina second, Chirrut’s smile turned into completely seriousness “We’ve got more company” 

That was all the warning they got before the house was entered by a group of at least six people pointing their guns at them. The last to enter, Jyn recognized him to be one of the idiots who tried to catch her last time.

“On your knees. Now!” one of them ordered. Jyn, Cassian and Baze had no other choice but to obey, although Chirrut remained sitting only losing his grip on the wooden staff he had been carrying and putting hisrarms up in surrender “Drop your weapons'' 

The one she recognized came to a stop in front of her kicking her gun back so she wouldn’t be able to reach it.

“You, I recognize you.” he said eyeing her up and down “You are the bitch who shot Mark in the leg and took our stuff” he was definitely happy to see her again, but she wasn’t going to give him the pleasure of intimidating her and glared back at him back in defiance “Well, well, how the tables have turned. I’m pretty sure he’s going to be happy we found you. we got in a lot of trouble thanks to you” he turned to make sure his friends had the rest of them controlled to proceed “C’mon let’s take them back to the station” 

In no time Jyn had been blinded by a sack that covered her face. She heard Cassian groan nearby, a growl from Baze and then Chirrut’s voice protesting: 

“Are you kidding me? I’m blind!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the patience. Next chapter won't take sooo long to arrive.

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter will be Cassian’s side of the story, and a little more info about the main threat in the story.  
> Kudos and comments are appreciated. <3


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